The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been baring its teeth at automakers more and more over safety issues, and today BMW North America joined the ranks of Fiat Chrysler, General Motors and Takata to get hit with penalties.

The 2014 Mini John Cooper Works, the hottest new version of a once-tiny car that's almost the size of an Mk3 Golf these days, got an extreme introduction in Detroit this afternoon by a live rock band a very eager fog machine.

BMW's Mini brand has big plans for the platform that underpins the new 2015 Mini Cooper. And by big, I mean "big" in the literal sense: bigger crossovesrs and higher seating positions are on tap for the future.

Every new Mini has grown, including the 2015 Mini Cooper that was revealed earlier today. But one rarely has a sense of the scale of growth because you normally don't see every Mini next to each other.

The first Mini Cooper was the word "mini" defined. The second gen car was a little bigger, but still fairly mini. The third one stretched that definition a good bit. And now we have a new Mini. It's larger on the outside and smaller in a key area.

I have to hand it to Mini on this one. Rather than tease us with closeups (which is annoying in and of itself, automakers) of the 2015 Mini Cooper using some generic whatever music, they did it with a tune from the most famous Mini Cooper movie ever: The Italian Job.

I've seen the 2015 Mini Cooper, and you should too. What I didn't know is how much good stuff can make it into the premium hatchback from bigger BMWs. Turns out it's quite a lot, and the new gadgets are all there to make it safer.

There's a new Mini Cooper on the horizon, and we're set to see exactly what it will look like in November. Until then, spy photographers in China have snatched the best look at the car's interior to date, and it looks like it may be losing its famous center-mounted speedometer.